NHL rules on Pietrangelo's potential 10 game suspension.
Many have called for Pietrangelo to face a harsh suspension after leaving the penalty box at the end of Game 4.
There has been a certain segment of the NHL's fan base that has been making a ton of noise over the weekend regarding a potential suspension to Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.
Many have called for Pietrangelo to face a 10 game suspension for leaving the penalty box at the conclusion of Game 4, something that seems more than a little ridiculous. The controversy around Pietrangelo's decision to leave the penalty box appears to stem from an incorrect reading of a rule under Section 9 of the NHL rulebook.
As you can see in the tweet below, this person is focusing on the first part of the rule while ignoring a rather pertinent section in the second part of that rule.
On Monday, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman revealed that the NHL had already reviewed the play and furthermore revealed that they had only needed a few short minutes to make their ruling. Friedman also detailed that the very same rule that was being used to call for a suspension against Pietrangelo, was actually the rule used to make the opposite decision.
"First of all he didn't charge out of the penalty box he was let out of the box," said Friedman on the 32 Thoughts Podcast. "People were sending me the part of the ruling that says 'if you do this you get a suspension,' well the same part of the ruling says if you're not the aggressor you don't get any of that. And he was not the aggressor.
"They looked at it, I think, for about 20 minutes and just decided that's the way it was gonna be."
While Pietrangelo would become involved in the melee after the fact, his involvement was clearly instigated by Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk and that no doubt played a major factor in the NHL's decision not to suspend Pietrangelo.
